Ambassador Welcomes

On 28-30 March Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma visited Chile. In addition to meeting with Chile’s new Foreign Minister, Dr Alejandro Foxley, he also met with Chile’s President, Dr Michelle Bachelet, giving them a chance to go over the growing bilateral agenda. The traditional yearly meeting of all Indian ambassadors to Latin America and the Caribbean took place in Santiago in those days.

On 8-10 May, General J.J. Singh, Chief of Staff, Indian Army, made an official visit to Chile at the invitation of Chile’s new Commander in Chief of the Army, General Oscar Izurieta. General Singh, who also met Chile’s Defence Minister, Vivianne Blanlot, and visited Punta Arenas, the world’s southernmost city, thus became the first Indian Army Chief to make a visit to Chile, and to Latin America.

Bilateral trade is also booming. TCS won the bid for developing the software for Transantiago, the Chilean capital’s integrated public transport system, and i-flex solutions added three new banks to its list of Chilean clients—Banco del Desarrollo, Security and International Bank. Chile’s exports to India, on the other hand, tripled in the first quarter of 2006, to U$ 301 million, making India jump from being Chile’s # 20 export market in 2003, to # 12 this year. Projections indicate bilateral trade will be more than U$ 1 billion in 2006.

It is therefore an exciting period in Chile-India relations, and we would like to encourage you to visit the rest of this website and look for opportunities in which you can also be a part of these developments.

Cordially,

Jorge Heine